Methods for compromising computer platforms, comprising a processor, are continually being developed. Currently, software vendors rely on unique identity (e.g., computer platform serial number, hard drive serial number, etc) to authenticate/validate a computer platform identity before enabling a software license for that specific computer platform. However, disclosing such unique identity (also called entity identity) to software executing on the processor enables profiling of personal user information associated with the user of the processor or computer platform. Examples of such personal user information include Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) information associated with the user processor or computer platform, processor configuration set by the manufacturer, end-user usage log for enabling targeted marketing, profiling consumer on-line traffic trends for targeted marketing, associating end users of the processor to a particular machine, and other forms of user profiling, etc.
Furthermore, protecting the unique identity on an integrated circuit (e.g., chipset) different from the processor (CPU), which is capable of communicating with the processor on a computer platform, does not preclude other agents (e.g., logic analyzers) to monitor and decode the communication between the integrated circuit and the processor.